Aaron Bruski

The Step-back 3

Sacramento: Losing Its Crown

Many folks in Sacramento are against using public funds for an arena. What would you say to them?

I'd say that you know what, I don't want to pave a road in South Sacramento that I'm never gonna use. I don't want to pay for my neighbor on the other side of the city to have his kids have better books than my kids at school. I don't want to pay for some homeless person, through no fault of my own, that didn't make it in this world – and now I have to feed them or clothe them? I don't want my dollars that I need to save so that my three and two-year old children can go to college some day, and in the meantime wear clothes on their back and go to preschool, going to some family to eat and live because they're on welfare.

I don't want to do that, but you know what, that's the only way that this country works.

Sometimes you have to pay for things that you'll never see in front of your face. Look, we pay 'x' amount of dollars to re-pave a freeway, well I can't remember the last time I drove around and I saw one of those signs that said 'your tax dollars at work, check out this new lane on this main drag here' – and that got me out of my seat screaming in fury. I can't remember the last time that I went and bought a t-shirt that said 'I fed a homeless person' on the back. That doesn't mean they're not worthy causes, but they don't cater to your heart and your soul like a professional sports franchise does. And if you're not a basketball fan and you're not going to watch the Sacramento Kings, well guess what, there's a lot of things that you benefit from in life – like that police officer that came to your house and investigated that burglary, or that ambulance that rolled over to your grandmother's house and saved her life after she had a heart attack.

But you were willing to do that because that's how this country works. Well, this is something that affects hundreds of thousands of people every year, this is something that instills civic pride. And, oh and by the way as you quoted in the Sacramento Business Journal, this is something that brings hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue over the years into the city of Sacramento and is one of the few destination activities that Sacramento has. So I say deal with it – you know what, that's the way it happens and that's the way it works and it's the only way we're going to be a viable city. Otherwise, just sit back on your lawn chair, drink your wine cooler, and watch the tumbleweeds roll by because that's where we're headed.

Kevin Johnson rode into office on a wave of popularity. He's a local kid that did well, he made it in the NBA, and he became the mayor of Sacramento. Where does he stand on all of this, has he been involved, and is he going to get involved with #HereWeBuild?

The only way Kevin Johnson and the city are going to get involved with #HereWeBuild is when we write them a check after they decide to build an arena. I don't want any of their hands near this. Now I spoke to the mayor's office and they said that they're supportive and I appreciate that, I really do. It helps to have that involvement, and if the mayor wants to get on board with us, and the mayor wants to support us, that's fine. But I have nothing more to say to the mayor, and we at #HereWeBuild have nothing to say to the city council other than 'you failed.' You failed and we're doing what you can't, and you better figure it out, because you're our employees. You don't have tenure. You get voted in and you get voted out.

Kevin Johnson I think is a good person, I do, I think he means well. I think he wants to keep this team to stay in Sacramento as I do, or any Kings fan does. I mean geez, the guy played point guard in the NBA for over a decade. There's nobody that's a bigger basketball fan than Kevin Johnson, and I truly do believe that. But Kevin's not a politician, and a lot of times that's a good thing, but in this case it's not.

He's surrounded by people, in my opinion, that are giving him bad information. There has been PR catastrophe after PR catastrophe involved in this whole thing, there's been grandstanding, there's been egos that are prevalent in the old guard that defines the way that the city of Sacramento runs. His official spokesperson, is an old newspaper guy that for years was slamming the Kings around. A very snarky guy, somehow got hired to be the voice of the mayor of Sacramento, and said in a national newspaper that the city of Sacramento felt it was "good riddance" for the Kings to leave. Well, that's not the case, and the mayor recently said that he took his spokesman out back and "took him to the woodshed" in his own words. It's a small microcosm of the missteps, misdirection, and ineptitude coming out of not just the mayor's office but the city council in general. So I believe he's a good dude, I believe he wants the team to stay here, but I don't think he knows how and I think he needs help. Hopefully that help will come because I don't think he can do it on his own.

There are a lot of rumors and stories about varying efforts by fans working to try to save the Kings. Is #HereWeBuild a part of the effort to go down to Anaheim and collective signatures for a petition to reject the $75 million bond measure for improvements on the Honda Center?

Well if you're putting this print, please put a big giant capital 'N' and a capital 'O,' then underline it and underscore it and put a highlighter on it so it looks like the sun is shining on it. No, no, not anywhere close. No way, no way, shape, or form. That is the antithesis of what we're trying to do.

Now I understand that, as I've said many times during this interview that if there's one thing that Sacramento knows how to do is red tape and bureaucracy, who knows – if they're going to delay this team leaving, if they're going to have success in that capacity in any way, rather than rolling up their sleeves and getting something done, it's very Sacramento-like to find a loophole, to find some red tape, to find some bylaw on the 300th page of a booklet that they can try to exploit. But, that's the opposite of what we're trying to do. We may both have the same goal, which is to keep the team here, we have entirely different ways of going about it.

Our job, and our goal, and our attempt is to have a positive conversation – not just with the fans, not just with the city council, but most importantly perhaps with the Maloof family which owns the Sacramento Kings and holds the fate of the franchise in their hands. We want them to know that we understand that there have been mistakes made on the side of Sacramento, and we also understand that there have been mistakes made by the Maloof family and I'm sure they'd be the first ones to tell you that – but there's no place for blame here and there's no place for grandstanding as I said before.

We want them to stay and we want them to know that part of the reason for that is that we have love for the franchise they own. It means more to us than just a basketball on a court, it's civic pride. We want them, if they were to announce to stay, to do it because they want to be here and it makes financial and business sense. Not because we forced them to on a technicality, and thus drove even more of a wedge between them and the city that they employ over 1,000 people in. And I believe that the Maloofs know, I know they know – I would bet money, that they know the fans love the team, and I don't think the Maloofs have any issues with the fans. I can't speak for them, but I'd bet all the money in my pockets and all the money in yours that the Maloofs have not one inkling of ill-will toward the fans of Sacramento.

Their issues fall entirely with the city of Sacramento, and like any big business owners, this isn't anything new. Sacramento is not home to tons of major corporations. Even the smaller market teams like Charlotte have a ton of banks headquartered in their city, and you can go down the road to San Jose where they have many multi-billion dollar companies. Big business does not find a comfortable home in Sacramento because Sacramento does not make it comfortable for big business. So, the Maloofs and the Sacramento Kings are just a small little sliver of the issues Sacramento has in their attitude toward big business. Sacramento asks 'what can you do for us, what can we exploit, and we're not going to lift a finger to help you because you're rich.' And you know what, whether they're right or wrong, that's not how you attract, and more importantly, that's not how you keep big businesses. That's the bottom line. So no, we're not involved in that movement, and you can put a big period behind that.

If you had 15 minutes with the Maloofs, what would you say to them?

Well first I'd like that really cool basketball suite at the Palms for the weekend. After that, I'd say 'guys, I know you're good guys. I know you're been in the NBA since you were young – since your father George Sr. passed away.'

They love the NBA, they're huge fans. And I would apologize, I would say 'on behalf of my city leaders, who I elect, I apologize. I really do. I don't know why they have egos, I don't know why there has been grandstanding, but there has been. I understand why you don't have a lot of trust or faith in the system here. I understand that it does make some very good business sense to go where you're in the second biggest business market in the United States (in Anaheim), where you have quite a few more million people to draw from, where you will be greeted with open arms, where you have a city council that is issuing money before you have even signed on the dotted line to attract you – yet the city you've been in for over a decade as owners won't lift a finger. I get it. But let's put that aside. You know we want you here. We also know that it's not going to be the easiest road in the world for you to go down there. Come back to the table, let's see what we can do. There's always time to move your team to Anaheim.'

Now Sacramento was never going to do a thing until a gun was pointed to their heads, and the Maloofs have made mistakes along the way, and maybe their biggest mistake came from the right place. I don't believe the Maloofs ever wanted to point the proverbial gun at the city – I don't think they ever wanted to say 'we need an arena by this date or we're leaving.' I think had they done that, yes that would have caused them a lot of negative press in the beginning, but it might have gotten something done by now. I think by them trying to be good guys, and not wanting to hold the city hostage, they might have inadvertently messed up the process.

But maybe they didn't understand the apathy of the city leaders, so even when I say they made a mistake, I have to underline that by saying they might have made a mistake with better intentions. I'd want to bring them back to the table, and I'd want to get everybody talking again. I like to shift their focus, if not completely away from Anaheim, but I'd like to bring an eyeball away from Anaheim – and let them resurvey the situation now that the fans are being heard.

Final question, are the Kings in Sacramento next year?

Well I could be coy and give you the sound bite and say 'I sure hope so' and 'God-willing' and that's all true. You know part of this whole process is cutting through all the BS and getting the answers, and as much as I want to give the positive sound bites, I also want to give straight answers.

If I'm a betting man I say 'no.' I absolutely say 'no.' I think the odds of the Kings being here next season are 90-10 out of 100, but I'll tell you this, I think three days ago it was 95-5, and I think tomorrow it will be 85-15. And as long as we can continue in a very short time before April 15th when the NBA Board of Governors meets, that if we can continue to move that scale little by little, we've got a fighting chance.

Until the moving trucks pull up to Power Balance Pavilion, formerly Arco Arena, and they begin packing up all the gear of the Sacramento Kings franchise – they're still the Sacramento Kings. And as long as they're here, we at #HereWeBuild at least, and the many others that have joined us and will join us in the next few days, we're going to continue to fight for one goal – and that is keeping this franchise here, and building them an arena that they desperately need. That's the best answer that I can give you.

When was the last time you decided to do something big? I'm not even talking about going to college, starting a company or getting married – I'm talking about affecting social change.

This week's Step-back Three takes a break from its normal format to acknowledge the situation in Sacramento, where a city on the brink of financial disaster knows that they have a basketball team for at least a few more weeks. And while the city politicians have squandered opportunity after opportunity to keep the Kings in town, a local group has stepped up to try to save their team.

I had the opportunity to speak with the leader of that movement – a man who goes by the name Carmichael Dave. Immediately after setting the recorder down, it was easy to understand how he accomplished more in one minute than local government did in 10 years. Maybe it was the throng of ideas he had, or maybe because it felt like I was talking to Sir Isaac Newton about a siege of Snookies.

Or maybe it is the arsenal of votes that he's bringing to City Hall on Tuesday afternoon – and the fact that he's not asking them to do backflips. He's expecting it, he's televising it, and you won't need pay-per-view to see it.

But what becomes crystal clear just as fast as you listen to him – is that history is being made in Sacramento. Somewhere down the line, a different team and a different city will lose their common ground, and the Cowbell Kingdom will be the blueprint that all sides use to plot their path.

Save their team – and they will have saved the jobs of thousands and the hopes of millions.

Their message to the rest of the country? Don't wait for a broken system of broken souls to do what it should be doing on behalf of the citizens that empower it.

As of the time of this writing, the #HereWeBuild movement (located here) has secured nearly a half-million dollars in pledges for a new arena in Sacramento, in just about the time it takes for a loaf of bread to grow moldy.

And while the sheer force of the #HereWeBuild movement is a riveting display of technology unleashed, the more human story of a desperate, yet resiliently positive group of citizens fighting for their team -- as if it were a member of their family -- is much more salient. Make no mistake, hanging in the balance is the economic fate of over two million people, who may not even know or care to admit it yet, but their lives are about to get more difficult, and in many cases more miserable than they already are.

Can one man, a Twitter account, and a rabid fan base pull together an upset for the ages? Carmichael Dave will be the first one to admit that the odds are long. The group will march on City Hall today, but it's the behind the scenes work that's going to dictate if they can make some change. And with thousands of jobs shoved to the center of the pot, and the mental and financial health of the 20th largest market in the United States on the line – one man stands at the forefront of affecting social change.To follow Aaron Bruski on Twitter click here

Tell our readers a little bit about yourself

I've been a Kings fan my whole life. I've been a sports fan my whole life. I was a caller to the (local radio station) KHTK since I was 13 years old, and that's where I got my name. I was Dave in Carmichael, which is a suburb in Sacramento, like Fred in Fair Oaks or John in Citrus Heights, and like a number of callers whose names get switched around by the hosts I became Carmichael Dave. I then interned for the station for a while doing sports updates, and finally got my job there with the Carmichael Dave Show. I took a bit of a different road, and I literally am a fan with a microphone.

By now everybody knows that Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof are considering moving the team to Anaheim, and they will have to make a decision by April 18 whether or not they want to move pull the trigger. There is a chance the other owners could vote to block the move, but most think that the move will be approved. Now all of a sudden the #HereWeBuild movement has popped up on billboards, TV, and the Internet with just two weeks to go. So tell our readers what #HereWeBuild is and what it expects to accomplish in such little time.

Well, #HereWeBuild is as grassroots as it gets. It was me responding to the Anaheim city council voting 5-0 to approve $75 million in bonds for the Honda Center to help the Kings move down there, and I sent out a tweet on Twitter saying 'Carmichael Dave votes 1-0 to pay $200 out of his pocket toward a new arena who's with me.' So I sent out a few more tweets, and got a few more responses, and I sent out a few more tweets and got a ton of response and within a few hours, I think within three hours we raised our first $100,000 online. Jiffy Lube of Sacramento, a local business here, donated $30,000 of that and by the next morning had six digital billboards around Sacramento – very viewable, in very high traffic areas, each with the #HereWeBuild Twitter hashtag and a running total of what we had raised.

The goal, part of it, we're accomplishing it as we speak. The goal was to fix the tenor of the conversation here locally in Sacramento, which was extremely negative, with the towel pretty much thrown in not just by our city council but by our mayor himself in many senses. A lot of negative publicity has turned over the last three, four, five days into positive publicity. We've been on the front page of the Sacramento Bee, we've been on every TV station here in town, numerous blogs, the New York Times, and with you guys – and instead of the focus being 'the Kings are leaving, the Maloofs and the city council are fighting, and Sacramento's going to be without a team in two weeks,' it's now turned to 'well that still all may very well happen, but in the meantime the fans are speaking up and they're putting their money where their mouths are and trying to make a difference.'

It's a Hail Mary pass, it's the bottom of the ninth, it's the 15th round – whatever sports analogy you want to use. But we're going down with a fight, which is a lot more different than things were going just a few days ago.

I've never seen anything like this move quite so quickly, and I think it speaks to the power of social media and Twitter. What has Twitter meant to #HereWeBuild as an organization?

If #HereWeBuild is a house, Twitter is the foundation and the first floor. It's the start, it's the genesis, it's everything. Just a few years ago in order to reach a large audience you had to, at best, maybe have a website, put something up there and hope people went to that website via email or word of mouth. Twitter is basically a global text message to whomever is following you, and whoever is following them, and so on. This infinite loop of eyes looks at a very short, sweet statement in 140 characters, and they run with it. And really, that's why this happened so quickly, that's why this has spread like wildfire. Now we brought in a website, we brought in Facebook, and we brought in traditional media and word of mouth. As for Twitter, before we started this interview I sent out a tweet that was updating the media about what we had done this evening and what was coming tomorrow, and already it's been seen by more than 100s of thousands of eyes – and that's at a late hour on a Sunday evening.

So Twitter's everything, it's gotten us off the ground and then some, but now we need real life events and efforts to continue our momentum.

I saw you on the local Fox 40 news report saying that the next steps for #HereWeBuild included looking for the 'smart kids in class.' Why are you looking for the 'smart kids in class' and what are the next steps for #HereWeBuild.

That's the question and answer right there. We're looking to hear from the smart kids in class because we're looking to get to the next step – because this thing has been so fluid. And even as this thing grew – I didn't believe it would grow this much, nobody does when things like this happen. And nothing, as you said, like this has ever happened before in this capacity. As it exploded I started to feel a weight on my shoulders and a good weight, that in order for this thing to work, we have to move it somehow. We have to keep momentum going.

Now we have all these pledges out there but its Monopoly money, it's not real. It's pledges, just like any telethon, but we haven't cashed them – and that's gotten us a lot of good PR. The next step is to turn that into actual dollars, so what I need, and my thing from the get-go, from day one, is that we won't collect a dollar of pledges until we have assurances that all laws are being followed, that everybody is protected, and that the goals of the movement are spelled out ad nausea, and let's face it – we're realists here. We know that the odds are against this thing being successful, so there's more than a decent chance that every penny is going to have to be returned. And if the people of Sacramento and the surrounding regions that are Kings fans, when they are losing their homes and losing their jobs, and they're still willing to dig into their piggy banks and to donate whatever they can – I need to give them assurances.

Along the lines of those assurances, how are you guys going to handle the money?

Like I said from the get go, I don't want a penny to come in of people's hard earned money, or to break their piggy banks after they lost their jobs, or they're $100K or $200K upside down on their mortgage – which is very prevalent in the Sacramento area, until we can guarantee that every penny goes back. Nobody's making a dime on this thing, there's not a percentage going to administration, there's none of that. So in order to accomplish that goal of 100%, and not that fake charitable 100% where really 80% goes to the cause, 100 percent of every dime goes to the arena fund. And if no arena is built, and it's more than likely that it won't be – then all those monies go back.

In order to accomplish that goal I need 'legal,' I need an accounting firm, we need a financial institution willing to do a herculean task of not just the intake but the release of those pledges back to the individuals, and many other things – web services, PR, all the stuff a good movement needs to make sure they're maximizing the voices of the people participating – the citizens! So we're trying to slam this thing together, and we need these groups who in most cases are extremely high-paid members of our business community, to come in pro bono, to come in and donate their time and efforts and resources to help us get to that goal -- which is bringing in pledges, starting a fund in escrow, which we will turn over to the city once they have cut a deal to build an arena and entertainment complex for the Kings and other tenants they will have throughout the year.

Has the ICON-David Taylor group, who was commissioned to do a feasibility study regarding the building of an arena for the Kings in Sacramento, contacted you regarding #HereWeBuild.

I haven't spoken to the ICON group, but I did speak to the mayor's office on Sunday. One question I asked very specifically was 'are we anywhere close to putting a dollar amount on what it's going to take to build the arena,' and I was told, 'no we're not there yet.' And I appreciate that, I understand that they don't want to give out false numbers and oversell or undersell, but the bottom line is that they don't have a number. So no I haven't been contacted by the arena group, and really I hope to at some point. If they want to get their hands on the money we're raising, they're going to need to contact us because part of what we're doing is contingent on their plan. They are one of the most important entities in this entire thing right now, and unfortunately their timetable doesn't seem to be meshing with the Maloof or NBA timetable so that remains to be seen.

Now a lot of folks remember the Kings from the Chris Webber and Vlade Divac days, they remember the cowbells and the sold out arena, but many of our readers across the nation and world might not know much about Sacramento. Can you tell our readers, what does the team mean for the city and how would losing the team be different for Sacramento than a city like Seattle, that lost a team a few years back?

I have been to Seattle, and Seattle is a gorgeous town with a fantastic nightlife and weather, as long as you like a little bit of rain. Most importantly, just from a sports point of view, although the loss of the Sonics was tragic –they also have the Seattle Mariners baseball team, the Seattle Seahawks football team, there's hockey up in Vancouver, there's college sports like the University of Washington nearby. They have a very viable sports scene without the Sonics, though it knocked a leg out from under them. But it's the same if you look at the Cleveland Browns, they have the Indians or Cavaliers, and if you look at most towns that have lost franchises – the Baltimore Colts when they moved to Indianapolis, they had the Orioles.

We have nothing. Sacramento's not a destination town, it's a government town. Sacramento is near things – it's near San Francisco, it's near Lake Tahoe, and it's a quick flight to Los Angeles and San Diego, and Yosemite is down the road. That's what we have. We have location near things. We don't have another team. With apologies to the Sacramento River Cats, but it's minor league baseball. Listen, there was a recent survey done, one of those national magazines puts out a misery index – the most miserable places to live in the country – and Sacramento, Stockton, and Modesto, which is the television market here, they were three of the top five miserable places in the entire country. One TV market holds three of the top five spots – that gives you an idea of how tough it is here.

And listen, this arena should have been built, but I'm not going to trash the city or its citizens when people are losing their homes. There's a homeless problem, class sizes are too high, and the city doesn't have a lot of money, because they don't have a lot of tourism. They don't have a lot of things to pick from. Anaheim can issue $75 million in bonds cause they have Disneyland! It's a destination place, people vacation to Anaheim. I've never watched the Price is Right and seen one of the prizes in the showcase be 'you've won an all-expense trip paid to Sacramento!' It doesn't happen.

So, back in 2002, the early part of this decade, people were flying flags with Kings on it. They were lining up round the block at the local Carl's Jr. for bobble head day, there was water cooler talk – and the thing I have to underline here, is that you can't quantify the complete value of the Sacramento Kings to this town. You can't put a dollar amount on when you go to work all day long and you come home, and you're worried about your mortgage, and your job, and you have a couple of kids that need to go to college and you don't know how you're going to do it – you can't put a dollar value on the ability to flop down on the couch and feel a little bit of civic pride while watching your basketball team, and win or lose, your mind gets away from the normal discourse of the day.

However you slice it, billions upon billions of dollars a year get spent on diversions, whether it's television, movies, video games, sports, or anything like that. People pay a lot of money just to forget for a little bit about real life, and there's not a lot of diversions in Sacramento. The biggest one by far is the Sacramento Kings, and this town which is in the top-5 cities that are the most miserable in the nation to live in right now with a team – is in the process of losing its crown jewel. It's a tragedy.

On the point of unquantifiable evidence, I agree that it's hard to quantify all of the benefit the Kings have to the region, but the Sacramento Business Journal actually quantified it and they pegged it at about $100 million per year. Now, you have a rabid fan base that raised a record number of funds, even if it is in Monopoly money, and there is an undisputed loss that this region is going to take if the Kings leave town. It seems to me that this should have been solved 10 years ago. What do you think the reason is that we're not at 'point B' right now?

Why do I think the reason is that we don't have an arena? Well, I know that there's a lot of people, whether they're listening or reading, that have never been to Sacramento, but I can tell you that as somebody that lives in Sacramento – if somebody asked me 'what is the last thing Sacramento accomplished, what is the last thing other than the Kings making the Western Conference Finals, or anything Kings related, what was the last thing this town accomplished?' I can't think of one, I can't, I cannot.

This town is perhaps, maybe other than Washington – which is the seed of government for the entire world, the most red-tape filled, bureaucratic, posturing, ego-driven town you can imagine. Nothing gets done. There's an old acronym, NIMBY, which stands for 'not in my back yard.' People in this town are all for things. They're willing to speak up for or against things, but don't do it near them. Don't' involve them. Don't make them pay for it. They don't want to do it.

The problem is, in my opinion, that we have a very misshaped seat of power here in Sacramento. We have people running this city that really are an old guard, they're in over their heads and they lack a vision, and most importantly, they lack courage. They lack courage to put themselves and their careers, their egos and their images, on the line.

Why haven't we discussed publicly a surcharge on all tickets for anything at the arena to help fund this? Why is the city of Sacramento, which has a relatively small number of attendees at arena events percentage-wise, the only city in the region in the discussion? You've got Yolo County, Placer County, you got suburbs all over the place that fall outside the jurisdiction of the city of Sacramento – that aren't involved in this process. Why isn't there a joint powers authority? Why hasn't that been created? Why isn't the county getting involved? Why is it a small sliver of the fan base of the Sacramento Kings that is trying to shoulder the entire process?

Just a few years ago we had a gorgeous, some say the best, minor league baseball facility (in the nation) built at Raley Field, but it's in (the separate city of) West Sacramento, which is led by a young, very dynamic mayor that somehow found a way to get things done. West Sacramento has leaders that get things done. If they can do that, and they're just a tiny little city, you're telling me that the 25th largest TV market in the country and the surrounding areas where millions of people live, they can't get an arena done and they've had 10 years with this on the front burner – it's because they're inept. It's because they're stubborn, and it's because they're obtuse – that's the problem.

Many folks in Sacramento are against using public funds for an arena. What would you say to them?

I'd say that you know what, I don't want to pave a road in South Sacramento that I'm never gonna use. I don't want to pay for my neighbor on the other side of the city to have his kids have better books than my kids at school. I don't want to pay for some homeless person, through no fault of my own, that didn't make it in this world – and now I have to feed them or clothe them? I don't want my dollars that I need to save so that my three and two-year old children can go to college some day, and in the meantime wear clothes on their back and go to preschool, going to some family to eat and live because they're on welfare.

I don't want to do that, but you know what, that's the only way that this country works.

Sometimes you have to pay for things that you'll never see in front of your face. Look, we pay 'x' amount of dollars to re-pave a freeway, well I can't remember the last time I drove around and I saw one of those signs that said 'your tax dollars at work, check out this new lane on this main drag here' – and that got me out of my seat screaming in fury. I can't remember the last time that I went and bought a t-shirt that said 'I fed a homeless person' on the back. That doesn't mean they're not worthy causes, but they don't cater to your heart and your soul like a professional sports franchise does. And if you're not a basketball fan and you're not going to watch the Sacramento Kings, well guess what, there's a lot of things that you benefit from in life – like that police officer that came to your house and investigated that burglary, or that ambulance that rolled over to your grandmother's house and saved her life after she had a heart attack.

But you were willing to do that because that's how this country works. Well, this is something that affects hundreds of thousands of people every year, this is something that instills civic pride. And, oh and by the way as you quoted in the Sacramento Business Journal, this is something that brings hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue over the years into the city of Sacramento and is one of the few destination activities that Sacramento has. So I say deal with it – you know what, that's the way it happens and that's the way it works and it's the only way we're going to be a viable city. Otherwise, just sit back on your lawn chair, drink your wine cooler, and watch the tumbleweeds roll by because that's where we're headed.

Kevin Johnson rode into office on a wave of popularity. He's a local kid that did well, he made it in the NBA, and he became the mayor of Sacramento. Where does he stand on all of this, has he been involved, and is he going to get involved with #HereWeBuild?

The only way Kevin Johnson and the city are going to get involved with #HereWeBuild is when we write them a check after they decide to build an arena. I don't want any of their hands near this. Now I spoke to the mayor's office and they said that they're supportive and I appreciate that, I really do. It helps to have that involvement, and if the mayor wants to get on board with us, and the mayor wants to support us, that's fine. But I have nothing more to say to the mayor, and we at #HereWeBuild have nothing to say to the city council other than 'you failed.' You failed and we're doing what you can't, and you better figure it out, because you're our employees. You don't have tenure. You get voted in and you get voted out.

Kevin Johnson I think is a good person, I do, I think he means well. I think he wants to keep this team to stay in Sacramento as I do, or any Kings fan does. I mean geez, the guy played point guard in the NBA for over a decade. There's nobody that's a bigger basketball fan than Kevin Johnson, and I truly do believe that. But Kevin's not a politician, and a lot of times that's a good thing, but in this case it's not.

He's surrounded by people, in my opinion, that are giving him bad information. There has been PR catastrophe after PR catastrophe involved in this whole thing, there's been grandstanding, there's been egos that are prevalent in the old guard that defines the way that the city of Sacramento runs. His official spokesperson, is an old newspaper guy that for years was slamming the Kings around. A very snarky guy, somehow got hired to be the voice of the mayor of Sacramento, and said in a national newspaper that the city of Sacramento felt it was "good riddance" for the Kings to leave. Well, that's not the case, and the mayor recently said that he took his spokesman out back and "took him to the woodshed" in his own words. It's a small microcosm of the missteps, misdirection, and ineptitude coming out of not just the mayor's office but the city council in general. So I believe he's a good dude, I believe he wants the team to stay here, but I don't think he knows how and I think he needs help. Hopefully that help will come because I don't think he can do it on his own.

There are a lot of rumors and stories about varying efforts by fans working to try to save the Kings. Is #HereWeBuild a part of the effort to go down to Anaheim and collective signatures for a petition to reject the $75 million bond measure for improvements on the Honda Center?

Well if you're putting this print, please put a big giant capital 'N' and a capital 'O,' then underline it and underscore it and put a highlighter on it so it looks like the sun is shining on it. No, no, not anywhere close. No way, no way, shape, or form. That is the antithesis of what we're trying to do.

Now I understand that, as I've said many times during this interview that if there's one thing that Sacramento knows how to do is red tape and bureaucracy, who knows – if they're going to delay this team leaving, if they're going to have success in that capacity in any way, rather than rolling up their sleeves and getting something done, it's very Sacramento-like to find a loophole, to find some red tape, to find some bylaw on the 300th page of a booklet that they can try to exploit. But, that's the opposite of what we're trying to do. We may both have the same goal, which is to keep the team here, we have entirely different ways of going about it.

Our job, and our goal, and our attempt is to have a positive conversation – not just with the fans, not just with the city council, but most importantly perhaps with the Maloof family which owns the Sacramento Kings and holds the fate of the franchise in their hands. We want them to know that we understand that there have been mistakes made on the side of Sacramento, and we also understand that there have been mistakes made by the Maloof family and I'm sure they'd be the first ones to tell you that – but there's no place for blame here and there's no place for grandstanding as I said before.

We want them to stay and we want them to know that part of the reason for that is that we have love for the franchise they own. It means more to us than just a basketball on a court, it's civic pride. We want them, if they were to announce to stay, to do it because they want to be here and it makes financial and business sense. Not because we forced them to on a technicality, and thus drove even more of a wedge between them and the city that they employ over 1,000 people in. And I believe that the Maloofs know, I know they know – I would bet money, that they know the fans love the team, and I don't think the Maloofs have any issues with the fans. I can't speak for them, but I'd bet all the money in my pockets and all the money in yours that the Maloofs have not one inkling of ill-will toward the fans of Sacramento.

Their issues fall entirely with the city of Sacramento, and like any big business owners, this isn't anything new. Sacramento is not home to tons of major corporations. Even the smaller market teams like Charlotte have a ton of banks headquartered in their city, and you can go down the road to San Jose where they have many multi-billion dollar companies. Big business does not find a comfortable home in Sacramento because Sacramento does not make it comfortable for big business. So, the Maloofs and the Sacramento Kings are just a small little sliver of the issues Sacramento has in their attitude toward big business. Sacramento asks 'what can you do for us, what can we exploit, and we're not going to lift a finger to help you because you're rich.' And you know what, whether they're right or wrong, that's not how you attract, and more importantly, that's not how you keep big businesses. That's the bottom line. So no, we're not involved in that movement, and you can put a big period behind that.

If you had 15 minutes with the Maloofs, what would you say to them?

Well first I'd like that really cool basketball suite at the Palms for the weekend. After that, I'd say 'guys, I know you're good guys. I know you're been in the NBA since you were young – since your father George Sr. passed away.'

They love the NBA, they're huge fans. And I would apologize, I would say 'on behalf of my city leaders, who I elect, I apologize. I really do. I don't know why they have egos, I don't know why there has been grandstanding, but there has been. I understand why you don't have a lot of trust or faith in the system here. I understand that it does make some very good business sense to go where you're in the second biggest business market in the United States (in Anaheim), where you have quite a few more million people to draw from, where you will be greeted with open arms, where you have a city council that is issuing money before you have even signed on the dotted line to attract you – yet the city you've been in for over a decade as owners won't lift a finger. I get it. But let's put that aside. You know we want you here. We also know that it's not going to be the easiest road in the world for you to go down there. Come back to the table, let's see what we can do. There's always time to move your team to Anaheim.'

Now Sacramento was never going to do a thing until a gun was pointed to their heads, and the Maloofs have made mistakes along the way, and maybe their biggest mistake came from the right place. I don't believe the Maloofs ever wanted to point the proverbial gun at the city – I don't think they ever wanted to say 'we need an arena by this date or we're leaving.' I think had they done that, yes that would have caused them a lot of negative press in the beginning, but it might have gotten something done by now. I think by them trying to be good guys, and not wanting to hold the city hostage, they might have inadvertently messed up the process.

But maybe they didn't understand the apathy of the city leaders, so even when I say they made a mistake, I have to underline that by saying they might have made a mistake with better intentions. I'd want to bring them back to the table, and I'd want to get everybody talking again. I like to shift their focus, if not completely away from Anaheim, but I'd like to bring an eyeball away from Anaheim – and let them resurvey the situation now that the fans are being heard.

Final question, are the Kings in Sacramento next year?

Well I could be coy and give you the sound bite and say 'I sure hope so' and 'God-willing' and that's all true. You know part of this whole process is cutting through all the BS and getting the answers, and as much as I want to give the positive sound bites, I also want to give straight answers.

If I'm a betting man I say 'no.' I absolutely say 'no.' I think the odds of the Kings being here next season are 90-10 out of 100, but I'll tell you this, I think three days ago it was 95-5, and I think tomorrow it will be 85-15. And as long as we can continue in a very short time before April 15th when the NBA Board of Governors meets, that if we can continue to move that scale little by little, we've got a fighting chance.

Until the moving trucks pull up to Power Balance Pavilion, formerly Arco Arena, and they begin packing up all the gear of the Sacramento Kings franchise – they're still the Sacramento Kings. And as long as they're here, we at #HereWeBuild at least, and the many others that have joined us and will join us in the next few days, we're going to continue to fight for one goal – and that is keeping this franchise here, and building them an arena that they desperately need. That's the best answer that I can give you.

We're going to do things a bit different here, and solicit feedback from our readers and, maybe, actually use that when we meet in the world headquarters over beer and pretzels to make these important life-decisions. So send in your emails, send us your tweets, and without further ado….

Fantasy MVP

Numbers are per-game over the course of the season unless otherwise noted.

Aaron Bruski has covered hoops for Rotoworld since 2008 and has competed in national fantasy sports competitions for nearly two decades. In 2015 he was named FSWA Basketball Writer of the Year. You can also find his work over at ProBasketballTalk, where he received critical acclaim for his in-depth reporting of the Kings' relocation saga. Hit him on Twitter at Aaronbruski.Email :Aaron Bruski